They Got Acquired - Might shutter your biz? Do this instead

November 15, 2022
​Read on web​

When Kate Kordsmeier grew tired of running Root + Revel, a holistic wellness website, she figured she had two options: stick it out or shut it down.

But then someone in a mastermind group suggested she sell.

“That was the first time I even considered that option, but from there I pursued the idea,” she said.

At that point, the site had about 10,000 email subscribers and saw up to 200,000 pageviews per month.

After a few false starts, Kordsmeier ended up with a 6-figure sale.

Our story shares how she found a buyer, plus what percentage of the sale price she walked away with after paying a marketplace and lawyer:

​Continue to run her health blog, or shut it down? She discovered a lucrative third option​

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Behind the business

We launched on Product Hunt yesterday!

Thanks so much to those of you who took a moment to offer support and feedback. We felt the love 💙

If you are hearing about this for the first time, it's not too late to leave us a comment.

So how'd the Product Hunt launch go?

This was my first time launching on the platform, and I wasn't sure what to expect.

We prepared by:

• Reading up on Product Hunt best practices for a smooth launch — like launching at 12am PST to maximize our day-long window
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• Mobilizing our community — sending an email to all of you, sharing lots of social updates and even direct messaging friends who might be willing to support us
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• Creating some beautiful slides to accompany our launch:

As of Monday mid-day, when I wrote this update, we've collected nearly 200 upvotes on the platform, plus dozens of comments.

While we still have hours to go — Product Hunt measures your votes over one day — I don't think we'll hit No. 1 product of the day, which is a popular measure of success on the platform. There are several other products way ahead of us!

But I'm still happy with the result. Getting No. 1 product of the day is a nice notch in the belt, but two other measures of success matter more to us with this particular launch:

📈 Loyalty: How many people in our community came out to support us and offer feedback, because that deepens our ties with each of you

📈 New subscribers: How many new subscribers signed up for this newsletter after seeing us on Product Hunt

We're seeing about one new email subscriber for every 2.5 upvotes. So more upvotes and a higher rank would have resulted in more new email subscribers.

While we don't have final numbers to share yet, I'm feeling good about where we landed and how it fits into our overall goals.

On a practical note, here's what my morning looked like to accommodate for a 3am EST launch:

Alexis Grant @alexisgrant Day in the life of a bootstrapper launching on Product Hunt: + 3am: Scheduled launch goes live + 3:45am: Got up to make sure it's working smoothly + 3:45am-6:55am: Quiet focus time + 6:55am: Taking break to get my kids up, fed + off to school + 9am: Back for 2nd half of workday November 14th 2022 0 Retweets 23 Likes

What surprised me about the launch?

It was cool to see how many of the 100+ founders we've covered on our website and podcast left comments on our Product Hunt page.

I hadn't planned to lean heavily on that group to spread the word, but once I noticed that trend, I emailed founders we've covered and asked them to participate.

Got other questions about our launch? Press reply and let me know, and I'll answer them in a newsletter or on Twitter.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
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P.S. The featured story in this newsletter is a great example of a founder who considered shutting down her business before realizing she could sell it.

I love her happy ending! I've come across so many founders in similar positions since launching this brand. My personal mission is to make sure every founder recognizes this opportunity and explores a sale before closing their virtual doors.

If you find yourself in this boat, don't be intimidated by the sale process! I will gladly chat with you about your options (for free).

You deserve a payday.

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About us 👋

Our mission is to redefine startup success by showcasing companies that sell for $100K-$50M. Learn more about us or follow us on Twitter.

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